Why do textbooks cost so much?

[dennis thompson]

I just bought a textbook for an introductory business course my grandson is taking in his first year in college, cost was $170
Why do textbooks cost so much?
Dennis

[Ted Calver]

Cause they gotcha right where they want ya

[Matt Meiser]

Why is the sky blue and the grass green?

Wait till he goes to sell it back used and they offer $3.18. So they can sell it used for $169.34.

[Brian Kerley]

Because they can.

They have an audience that is forced to buy a book. Therefore, they can charge whatever they want.

Not to mention that with student loans and such, it all gets thrown into the loan. So if a kid isn't having to bear the cost right now, it's hard for them to complain. Hell, federally backed student loans is one big contributor to why college expenses have risen so highly to begin with.

[Stew Hagerty]

Because they can. They have an audience that is forced to buy a book. Therefore, they can charge whatever they want.

Bingo... +1 that

[Rod Sheridan]

A text book is often a low volume book that has a short lifespan as the content material changes.

In addition, they often require expert level knowledge, experience and education.

All of the above cause the book to be expensive, per unit...............Regards, Rod.

[Brian Elfert]

I believe the reason textbooks have regular new editions is not because the material changes that often. I think the real reason is so students have to buy new textbooks from the publisher and the used ones lose all value.

[Bryan Slimp]

There is really no reason why they shouldn't go all digital.

Also, some text books can be rented. Maybe an avenue to check into in the future.

[Dan Friedrichs]

As Rod said, they're usually VERY low volume (compared to, say, a mass-market paperback), they are usually VERY intensive to write (consider the effort needed to make the thousands of figures in a typical textbook, versus just writing text), they need to be written by experts, and the proofreading is tremendously onerous. And, the material does change (or, at the very least, people come up with better ways to present it).

There is no boogeyman, here - college bookstores are typically subsidized by the school (they make very little money on textbook sales), authors make peanuts (and typically only write a book because they're frustrated by the lack of other quality offerings in the field), and publishers have to deal with the fickle market for such specialized books.

[David Weaver]

I will sound like a cynic here, but it's sort of a joke when an introductory business textbook costs that much.

It's also a joke when something like basic calculus or basic chemistry textbooks cost that much.

The former because there's not much useful information in it, and the latter because not much changes, with the exception of references to use technology to do some of the grunt work. (I had a double major, one major in business, and one in mathematics. I'm still floored by just how little tangible anything there was in the business core courses, and the entry level courses were even worse).

When I was in college, we had a professor who was disgusted with the textbook market for a materials science course, so he wrote his own and offered it for $19. He took his job very seriously, and provided an excellent and very interesting course.

College is a business. One that gets to pretend that it's not for profit, and not pay any taxes on their buildings and property, etc. And they get special status so that they can arrange to have you financed at low rates so that their bill can be higher. What's happened with colleges in the last 20 years, so far as I can tell, is a building and brochure picture contest without any increase in the quality of education.

A lot of the professors are pretty arrogant about why you need to have a very specific exact textbook for entry level courses, or even 3 or 4 hundred level courses in common subjects. There could be some standardization in that, but there is no incentive to do it.

If you start talking about subjects like surgical techniques for large cold blooded animals, etc, then there is going to be a pretty limited market no matter how universal or ubiquitous the book may be in its area.

But the bottom line is if you're in the courses and the professor uses a specific textbook a lot, you just have to pay it or hope to find a copy online for less.

[Jerome Stanek]

Did you try looking up the ISBN on the internet. When my kids where going to collage thats what they did and saved a bundle.

[Brian Kerley]

There is really no reason why they shouldn't go all digital.

Going digital doesn't change the cost much. Materials and shipping costs are a few percentage points of the cost.

The big issue (that someone here pointed out) is that they release new editions every year with small tweaks. This allows them to instantly obsolete all those used books and force people to buy new. The used book market hurts the manufacturers bottom line, so they do something to get around it.

The used video-game market is being targeted by the publishers as well. Expect that market to dry up in 5 years time.

[Brian Elfert]

Going digital would allow publishers to wipe out the entire used market. Books could be registered to a student and not usable on another device. Not saying this is a good thing.

[Greg Portland]

There are ways to secure a PDF. Alternatively, just use Kindle.

Why do textbooks cost so much?

The first business lesson is supply and demand :-).

[David G Baker]

I purchased used text books from the campus book store if they were available. This was back in the early 60s and I thought the used book price was outrageous back then.